Vaccines, variants, natural immunity and better treatment options mean that catching Covid-19 now is not what it was a year or two ago.
But for millions of people who contracted the virus even in the first few months of the pandemic, the impact of the disease remains.
One in five adults who have recovered from a novel coronavirus infection has experienced at least one long-term Covid-related medical condition, according to a study published Tuesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). U.S.
That number jumps to one in four in people aged 65 and over. The most common conditions among all adults were respiratory symptoms and chronic fatigue, the researchers found. Patients were also twice as likely as other people to have conditions that affect the lungs.
Despite the vast scientific attention paid to understanding the disease and developing vaccines and treatments, health experts are still learning about the long-term Covid – one of the most unusual and damaging phenomena of the pandemic.
Estimates of the long-term symptom frequency of Covid range from 5% to 80%, according to the CDC. World Health Organization estimates range from 10% to 20%.
CDC researchers analyzed medical records of more than 350,000 people who tested positive between March 2020 and November 2021, so their new study provides a valuable clue to understanding the prevalence of the disease.
Another development came from a Scottish study, published Monday, which found that more severe cases of Covid-19 can cause long-term damage to multiple organs.
Cardiac inflammation was considered an ongoing problem for one in eight hospitalized patients with Covid-19, according to the study, which tracked the progress of 159 people for a year after admission.
Body-wide inflammation and kidney damage were also common. And the study supported other research that indicated that women are more at risk of suffering from long-term Covid than men.
“Covid-19 is a multisystem disease, and our study shows that damage to the heart, lungs and kidneys can be seen on examinations after the initial hospitalization,” says Colin Berry, professor of cardiology who led the study at the University of Glasgow.
Previous research suggests that a small proportion of people now living with Covid-19 may not have shown any symptoms when they were initially infected — or had mild or unusual symptoms.
But the one thing that is certain is that Covid is unpredictable, and even so long after the pandemic began, it remains a scientific conundrum.
Source: CNN Brasil
